7 Month 3: Possessions

This month of 7 is pretty easy in theory: each day give away 7 possessions. If you do 4 weeks, that equals 210 possessions. I have to say, this idea feels pretty awesome, but I'm not positive I can come up with 210 items. Brian and I gave away a lot of stuff when we moved in together and really streamlined our house. Plus, I can't seem to convince him that he should pare down on the number of books he owns. They're for "work" or something.

Even if I can't hit the magic 210 number, I'm still taking this opportunity to clean out the excess and the clutter (the whole point of this exercise, really!). This week I've donated 35 items of clothing to a shelter that my church is involved with and pulled 30 books off my shelf that I don't need. They aren't children's books, so I can't send them to a school, but I will be donating them through a library program.

This weekend my girlfriends have organized a clothes swap where a bunch of us are getting together to swap out clothes we don't wear very much. I have to say, I prayed about this a lot over the past couple of weeks. Part of the 7 project is giving to those in need, and while none of us grad student wives have a huge clothing allowence, I wouldn't necessary call us "in need." But I craved the fellowship of getting together with this awesome group of women, so I made a compromise: I pulled out a number of cute items to take to the swap and offered to take anything unclaimed to the shelter. I figured if I can increase my contribution and receive some fellowship in return.

I have to say that this is challenge is not only making me think "what do we really need in this house?" as it relates to getting rid of things, but as it relates to shopping. I'm heavily depending on my awesome library for books and movies and things like guitar music as I decide to take that up again. I've never been good at sticking with it, so instead of buying a number of expensive music books, I'm checking them out from the library! Genius! Also, whenever I take a trip I stock up on novels to read on the plane, usually forgetting until the last minute and buying them at the airport bookstores = the most expensive place possible. Now I've requested a number of books to take with me and bring back over Thanksgiving.

I love the way this challenge is changing my thought around possessions and I can't wait to see where it leads.